Colts’ $1M gift designed to help upgrade school food
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Colts on Tuesday announced a $1 million gift to support the Patachou Foundation, an organization that wants to reimagine school cafeterias in Indianapolis.
The foundation’s PataSchool initiative aims to revolutionize school kitchens in Indianapolis and combat childhood hunger.
One of the schools helped by the initiative has transformed their kitchen into a culinary hub named Colts Commons. Over 450 students can access healthy meal options. The Emma Donnan school was able to get this updated space thanks to the initiative and the Colts’ gift.
Edward Rangel, CEO of Adelante Schools, said, “At least what I grew up with at school was the tried and true, standard school lunch. Now, we have transformed that by using fresh ingredients and scratch-made meals to get kids excited about what they are eating, ask questions, and be inquisitive about what they are eating.”
The model will help to restore working kitchens within schools and provide support by hiring and training culinary staff to prepare scratch-made meals.
Over the next five years, the initiative plans to provide over 1.2 million meals to 3,500 students.
Rangel said, “We are blessed because we are in an old, established IPS (Indianapolis Public Schools) building. They already had a huge kitchen from the 1960s, so we could walk in and say what we could do to enhance it, and what we needed to make available so that a scratch-made kitchen could be possible.”
The Colts’ efforts and their fans’ support have created a game-changing opportunity for students in the Circle City. Rangel said, “Everyone first assumes that there are a lot of barriers. We can’t make this happen. This isn’t possible in every school. I want everyone to know to start asking how to make it possible because we are seeing the transformation happening in our school and other schools across the city. Hopefully, this will expand because every student deserves high-quality school meals.”
Proceeds of the Colts’ Game Day 50-50 raffle will fund the effort.
One benefitting school will be Adelante Schools at Emma Donnan School No. 72, which already provides nutritious and exciting meals for students.
Adelante eighth grade teacher Grace Lund recalled how school lunch used to work. “Before, we saw foods in packaging that would get heated up, and the students knew it wasn’t that great. Now, they are seeing the scooping of the food, or they can smell the food as it’s being made throughout the day and get excited about what food they are eating that day.”
According to Feeding America 1 in 5 kids is food insecure.
Students say they are big fans of the new food. Seventh grader Sergio Hernandez said, “My favorite dishes are the teriyaki chicken with rice, and my first is the pizza they serve on Friday.”